Images: The Significance of the American Revolution

Constitution of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society

Eighteen Philadelphians, most of them Quakers, organized the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage — known as Philadelphia Abolition Society (PAS) — in 1784. Benjamin Franklin (he became its president in 1789) and Benjamin Rush were among its members. In 1787, PAS led a local campaign to ban the international slave trade.